The travel trends of two major airports in Kerala – Cochin International Airport and Thiruvananthapuram International Airport – in 2023 painted a contrasting picture. For the first time in recent history, domestic flyers from Thiruvananthapurm airport surpassed international passengers, with the airport roughly handling around 22 lakh domestic passengers as against 19 lakh international passengers in 2023.
As per the normal trend in Kerala, 55 out of every 100 passengers who travel through the four international airports in the State are international passengers, while in the rest of India, domestic passengers outnumber the international flyers.
The trend saw a notable shift in 2023. Of the 41.48 lakh passengers the Thiruvananthapuram airport played host to in 2023, 54% were domestic flyers and 46% were international passengers. In contrast, out of the 1 crore passengers who travelled through Cochin airport, which handles around 63.50% of the total air passengers in Kerala, 54.04 lakh were international flyers, while 46.01 lakh were domestic passengers, maintaining the ratio of 56% international flyers and 46% domestic travellers.
